Believe me peeps, I tried really hard with this. But I just couldn’t get invested into “Havoc“ as much as I wanted to and the worst part of it is nobody’s really at fault here. Ok, maybe I’m lying.
I will say if anybody was going to direct a trashy, overly dramatic crime thriller with such unrestrained verve, of course it had to be Gareth Evans. The director behind the visceral intensity of The Raid films is mostly in his element here and his kinship with projects of this ilk means he’s at ease in this playground where mayhem reigns supreme. And yet all that fervor and passion feels horrifically misplaced, like a symphony played at the wrong concert. Dare I say, his direction comes across as indolent and little bit lazy?
This entire production design seems to operate off of the uncanny valley from a minute to minute basis; somehow, there’s this extra-pulpy stylization that comes and goes in regards to the distorted, heightened reality the film DOES embrace and while it’s clearly taken some inspiration from the cartoony comic artificiality of Sin City or the gaudy expressionism of Gotham City….it doesn’t completely play up to that dedicated approach of methodology. And the scale isn’t any more robust or refined than the scope; settling into its criminal underworld without building out the settings and barely withholding its brooding atmosphere. The realistic backdrop towards everything made it look less absorbing.
I wouldn't describe this presentation as skeletal, yet everything about it seems flat and rigid, leaving no room for flexibility. Visually speaking, the stark contrasts and neon coloring do better at supplying the heightened reality but I can’t justify the grainy film filter use for the sake of a grittier aesthetic, not only since the use of it is so diluted but also because Matt Flannery’s cinematography is so middle-of-the-road, it hardly matters. And the editing isn’t much better; sometimes it’s ok, other times it constantly breaks the immersion and leaves you reeling.
So much of the CGI and visual effects in this movie is uncomfortable; like, bad-video-game-cutscene-from-the-early-2000s uncomfortable. Characters clip through scenes, explosions look like GIF overlays, and the overall rendering looks so glossy and unpolished that it's genuinely distracting and it barely flows with the action (I’ll get to that soon). Not to mention, it doesn’t elevate the tone, which is already disjointed, inconsistent and further exacerbated by the manic pacing and the 115-minute runtime both plodding along and zipping around like an ADHD jackrabbit. That being said, they do try to give the events some gravitas, costumes are indicative of each character’s social standing and nothing more, sound design is functionally fine and for what its worth, the music is dependable enough for the project it’s attached to; propulsively moody for the genre but nothing too special beyond that.
Before anyone asks, yes, the action is entertaining; to be blunt about it, it’s probably the best part of this entire experience….but there’s a giant asterisk to that compliment. While not as overwhelming as we’re used to seeing in Gareth Evan films, the way they still pop and burst less like a choreographed sequence of events and more like a frenzied scurrying flurry of desperation still supplies a hearty energy to the proceedings that prevents you from dozing off. But even that starts feeling comical the more it’s utilized with tactile tension, little sense of escalation and with hardly any of the rhythmic grace from The Raid movies; a blitheringly excessive amount of cognitive dissonance.
Despite every one of these cast members being given a specific character trope or stereotype that’s entirely one dimensional, nobody is phoning it in; they all put in genuine effort and it shows. Tom Hardy and Timothy Olyphant, in particular, have magnetic screen presences that make good on what little they’re given while Forest Whitaker, Jessie Lei Mi and Quelin Sepulveda among others are given the bare minimum of material and they still shine in spite of everything.
Off the bat, this narrative is stuck in a conundrum. It wants nothing more but to be a mere scaffolding to drive and house all the action but the few bits of expanding story it sprinkles about in the background might as well be the equivalent to juggling wind bags. For a simple premise and setup, both are protracted and overstuffed to an exhausting degree between warring factions, so many characters and constantly shifting motivations piling into a near two-hour runtime, I started to doubt pretty quickly whether where the story placed its focus was the right call because again, the pacing is so relentless, I could barely keep track of who did what to whom and when. Somehow convoluted without leaning into its obvious complexities and busy without being too interesting, it feels so paper thin with its litany of recycled noir tropes, manufactured twists and routine structure leaving a gaping hole in the face of actual weight and barely elucidating any of the crucial details it gives out.
Yes, I understand that as strictly a vehicle to get right to the next action scene, the job gets done. But what’s the bloody point if nothing ever seems to be at stake?
For a film that very plainly wears the murky influences of corruption and chaos on its sleeve, not much is done to build off of or strengthen that foundation. You think it’ll turn around muted or subtle themes of redemption, loyalty, consequences or even the murky morality that blurs the line between who’s right and wrong depending on which side of the law you’re on but the movie isn’t interested in that. It gestures more towards the latter two, showing how everyone tries to vault over the landmines of being forced to choose between morals and the demands of one's superior in a morally ambiguous world permeated by everyone making the wrong choices, so why is it so lethargic in that delivery? Such a haphazard and careless job is done at incepting most of these themes and ideas, that they don’t gel with one another and by the time you reach the ending, you kinda feel relieved that the carnage finally subsided.
At least The Raid films had a distinct personality in how it presented its themes and action to mask the lack of narrative tissue. You hardly get anything here.
This project takes an inordinate amount of time to live up to its title, and even when it does, some of the "Havoc" comes at the expense of the narrative's focus and coherence, as well as other essential elements. Furthermore, the stylishly savage action rarely yields significant results, which is a disservice to Gareth Evan's exceptional previous work.
